The Houston Rockets have seemingly gotten much better this season just from one key addition and that is Ty Lawson. In the playoffs last season the Rockets were forced to start Jason Terry at point guard because Patrick Beverley was injured but they went out and got Lawson so they now have two legitimate point guards. Many people assumed after Lawson was brought in that he would be inserted right into the starting lineup but that may not be the case, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
Lawson has started the majority of his NBA games in his career and he is clearly the best offensive point guard the Rockets have but the logic behind starting Beverley is pretty sound. The Rockets starting lineup has plenty of scoring in it without Lawson so they could use Beverley and his tenacious defense in that lineup while bringing Lawson off the bench as the go-to-guy on the second unit. Lawson is not in the same stratosphere defensively as Beverley even though head coach Kevin McHale thinks he can be.
"He's got to get back to playing better defense. He's got to be the head of the snake defensively. He can. I've seen him," said McHale.
McHale hasn't made a decision on who to start yet at point guard but he said the two point guards themselves will determine it by how they play in training camp. McHale thinks Lawson is coming off a down year and Beverley is coming off of a season ending injury so both guys have something to prove.
"They'll determine that. We'll find out. Can we play them together? Maybe. We'll put them out there. We have 28 days of camp. We'll decide who will get the lion's share of the minutes. One will and one will be a backup," said McHale.
McHale suggested that the two point guards might play together at points but also hinted that one will be getting significantly more minutes than the other. With that in mind it is hard to fathom that Beverley gets way more minutes than Lawson unless Lawson provides next to nothing on defense. Lawson is an extremely talented scorer and passer who should be able to provide the Rockets with a new dimension they haven't had and that is a scoring point guard. Beverley is great on defense and starting him wouldn't be a bad choice but playing him a lot more minutes than Lawson would be questionable. Either way this is a good problem for the Rockets to have as they have to decide which of two starting caliber NBA point guards will start while the other comes off the bench.
